[[[In the Company of Thieves]]] by Kage Baker. Tachyon, $15.95, 336pp, tp, 9781616961299. Science fiction/Fantasy. On-sale date: October 2013.
Immortality has never been quite this mercenary…
The employees of Dr. Zeus Incorporated meddle with history in these outlandish Company tales of unpredictable espionage, preposterous escapades, and important affairs gone terribly wrong.
A foremost corporation of the twenty-fourth century, the Company is dedicated to extracting extraordinary items out of the past. Their time-traveling cadre of superhuman employees is virtually undetectable and practically unstoppable. If what you desire involves the theft of ordinary, unusual, or even legendary artifacts, Dr. Zeus is your man.
But history must stay on course. The operatives of the Company function with extreme stealth and caution, required to keep the events of the past consistent with how they were recorded. Avoiding the curiosity and greed of everyday mortals proves much more difficult – – and occasionally ridiculous – – than anyone could have foreseen.
Included in this historically questionable volume are four previously uncollected stories; a classic tale of Transylvanian intrigue; and the brand new story “Hollywood Ikons,” a collaboration with Kage Baker’s sister, Kathleen Bartholomew.
[[[The Friendly Horror & Other Weird Tales]]] by Jessica Burke & Anthony Burdge. Myth Ink Books, 146pp, tp, 9781491036211. Horror Collection. On-sale date: Fall 2013.
Deep in the heart of Staten Island, New York City’s “forgotten borough,” horrible creatures lurk… and they’re particularly fond of ice cream.
Be prepared to explore the Everyday with a macabre, decidedly Lovecraftian twist in this collection of short fiction, where anything is possible. The mundane world becomes a place where kittens journey in time and space – – and sometimes pick up hitchhikers, where humans aren’t the only ones who bring their children to work, where souvenirs aren’t just for tourists, where storms can become creatures with their own appetite, and where a simple ice cream cone takes on a nefarious edge.
[[[Monsters of the Earth]]] by David Drake. (The Books of the Elements), Tor, $25.99, 368pp, hc, 9780765320803. Fantasy.
Vietnam veteran, former lawyer, former bus driver, and now famous author, David Drake has been writing military SF and fantasy since the early 1970s. Monsters of the Earth, the third fantasy novel in a sequence of four (after The Legions of Fire and Out of the Waters) is set in Carce, an alternate ancient Roman Empire, where supernatural forces threaten to destroy the world.
Governor Saxa, of the great city of Carce, a fantasy analog of ancient Rome, is rusticating at his villa. When Saxa’s son Varus accompanies Corylus on a visit to the household of his father, Crispus, a retired military commander, Saxa graciously joins the party with his young wife Hedia, daughter Alphena, and a large entourage of his servants, making it a major social triumph for Crispus. But on the way to the event, something goes amiss. Varus, who has been the conduit for supernatural visions before, experiences another: giant crystalline worms devouring the entire world.
Soon the major characters are each involved in supernatural events caused by a struggle between two powerful magicians, both mentored by the deceased poet and mage Vergil, one of whom wants to destroy the world and the other who wishes to stop him. But which is which? There is a complex web of human and supernatural deceit to be unraveled.
This new novel in the ongoing chronicles of Carce, The Books of the Elements, is a gripping and intricate work of fantasy. Monster of the Earth will delight fans of David Drake and captivate all epic fantasy readers new to the series.
[[[Modern Masters of Science Fiction: William Gibson]]] by Gary Westfahl. University of Illinois Press, $23.00, 224pp, tp, 9780252079375. Non-fiction.
A pioneering full-length study of the creator of cyberpunk
The leading figure in the development of cyberpunk, William Gibson crafted works in which isolated humans explored near-future worlds of ubiquitous and intrusive computer technology and cybernetics. This volume is the first comprehensive examination of the award-winning author of the seminal novel Neuromancer (and the other books in the Sprawl trilogy, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive), as well as other acclaimed novels including recent bestsellers Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. Renowned scholar Gary Westfahl draws upon extensive research to provide a compelling account of Gibson’s writing career and his lasting influence in the science fiction world.
Delving into numerous science fiction fanzines that the young Gibson contributed to and edited, Westfahl delivers new information about his childhood and adolescence. He describes for the first time more than eighty virtually unknown early Gibson publications, including articles, reviews, poems, cartoons, letters, and a collaborative story. The book also documents contributions Gibson has written for various books, examines illuminating comments from various print and online interviews. Westfahl performs extended analyses of Gibson’s ten novels and nineteen short stories. Lastly, the book presents a new interview with Gibson in which the author discusses his correspondence with author Fritz Leiber, his relationship with the late scholar Susan Wood, his attitudes toward critics, as well as yet-unreleased screenplays and novels.
[[[Fiendish Schemes]]] by K.W. Jeter. Tor, $25.99, 352pp, hc, 9780765374028. Science fiction. On-sale date: October 2013.
George Dower, son of the inventor of Infernal Devices, has been in self-imposed exile… accumulating debt.
The world Dower left when he went into hiding was significantly simpler than the new, steam-powered Victorian London, a mad whirl of civilization filled with gadgets and gears in the least likely places. After accepting congratulations for his late father’s grandest invention – – a walking, steam-powered lighthouse – – Dower is enticed, by the prospect of financial gain, into a web of intrigue with ominously mysterious players who have nefarious plans, the nature of which he can only guess.
If he can locate and make his father’s Vox Universalis work as it was intended, his future – – he is promised – – is assured. But his efforts are confounded by the strange Vicar Stonebrake, who pledges him aid, but is more interested in converting sentient whales to Christianity – – and making money – – than in helping George.
Drugged, arrested, and interrogated by men, women, and the steam-powered Prime Minster, Dower is trapped in a maelstrom of secrets, corruption, and schemes that threaten to drown him in the chaos of this mad new steam-powered world.
[[[Spheres of Influence]]] by Ryk E. Spoor. (sequel to Grand Central Arena), Baen, $15.00, 464pp, tp, 9781451639377. Science fiction. On-sale date: November 2013.
Leader of the Faction of Humanity. It was a ridiculous title, but the Arena said that was what Captain Ariane Austin was since she’d led the crew of the Holy Grail in their discovery of the impossible, physics-violating place and their eventual return, and when the nigh-omnipotent Arena said something, it meant it.
Ariane must discover what it means to be the Leader of Humanity, both for herself and for humanity, before her enemies—at home or in the Arena—depose her, kill her, or worse. It will take all her luck, Marc DuQuesne’s indomitable will, Simon Sandrisson’s genius, and the peerless skill of a living legend. And, in the end, humanity’s fate in the galaxy and beyond will hinge on the choice of an uncertain ally who has nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by aiding those neophyte upstarts, the humans.
[[[The Body in Tolkien’s Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality]]] edited by Christopher Vaccaro. McFarland, $40.00, 200pp, 9780786474783. Non-fiction.
The timely collection of essays is thematically unified around the subject of corporeality. Its theoretical underpinnings emerge out of feminist, foucauldian, patristic and queer hermeneutics. The book is organized into categories specific to transformation, spirit versus body, discourse, and source material. More than one essay focuses on female bodies and on the monstrous or evil body. While Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is central to most analyses, authors also cover The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and material in The History of Middle-earth.
[Contributors: Verlyn Flieger, Yvette Kisor, Anna Smol, Matthew Dickerson, Jolanta N. Komornicka, Robin Anne Reid, Gergely Nagy, James T. Williamson, Jennifer Culver, and Christopher Vaccaro.]
[[[On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic]]] edited by Diane L. Walton. Summer 2013 (Volume 25, Number 2; whole number 93). $6.95. www.onspec.ca.
Fiction by Sarah Frost, Tyrell Johnson, Albert Choi, J.P. Boyd, Camille Alexa, Leslie Brown, L.D. Wilton, and Shen Braun. Non-fiction by Diane L. Walton, Roberta Laurie, and Cat McDonald. Features by Geoffrey W. Cole, Jocko Benoit, and Kyle Charles.